I went to Bloom 09 on Thursday. I hadn't been before, and the only thing I can compare it to is Chelsea. OK, here is my opinion of the event - overall, very positive.

The thing I like most about Bloom is its appeal and accessibility. Chelsea is very "plantsy" and if are an amateur, it can alienating. Bloom accommodates for children, food lovers, proud home keepers etc...

Considering its an event of this kind, the food selection is good. Chelsea subcontracts all the "trailer catering" to one company and the standards are abysmal and prices ridiculous. Although the food stalls were pricey, you had options with the food market, and a wonderful selection at that.

There are nurseries selling plants, and have a display of their stock. I wouldn't have awarded any with an outstanding achievement for display, they were all pleasant, some more than others. Plant prices really vary, I think its up the people to shop around. And some nurseries have "gems", you have rummage around for them. A comment for the organisers is they need to sort out the walking surface in the pavilion, I watched a poor son struggling to get his mother on her wheelchair through there.

I am going to try be kind here, but the show gardens are "acceptable". I found allot of "nursery stock" buried and arranged to create a garden - granted they may do this at Chelsea too, but they go out of their way to disguise this and have plants specially grown for the event. Also, some Garden Designers are bent on selling a outdoor lifestyle not conducive to Ireland. Hammocks and outdoor drapes belong in Malaga, not Monivea
There were a couple of gardens I did like - the Japanese garden with Maples and opaque glass backdrop oozed with class, and the structure of the "hilly" garden with a seated alcove intrigued me. I just found out that this is only the 3rd Bloom, so it is in its infancy. I am sure as the show develops, sponsorship will increase and so will the standards of the show gardens.

I like how vegetable and organic gardening are encouraged. The highlight for me was a complimentary "creche" service where you can leave your purchases and pick them up on your way out.

My review would be rather different if the weather wasn't as glorious as it was today, I think that is the greatest factor for an event like this, and one I enjoyed by myself.
Will definitely be back in 2010.

Regards
Protein_________________"But no one puts flowers
On a flower's grave" - T Waits

I was so thrilled to win tickets to Blooms '09. I apply for everything and rarely win anything.

Although I lived in the UK for 20 years, I never made it to the Chelsea Flower Show, despite living in Hertfordshire and not a million miles from Chelsea. Work always took over!

Anyway - we moved back to Ireland in 2006, having been over and back for about five years, doing a bit and waiting to retire. Our biggest ambition was to have a cosy house in the country and a nice garden, What a challenge! We are on an elavated site, the house was totally surrounded by miserable looking trees fighting for the light so the whole site had to be cleared and we started with a blank canvas in 2004/2005. Four years on our garden is beyond our expectations and we are always looking for ideas. Hence applying for tickets for Blooms 09.

We decided to go on Friday, getting the early morning train from Ballyhaunis. We arrived in Dublin Heuston to discover a courtesey bus running to Blooms just outside. Result! This meant we were there fro 11am with no stress of traffic, parking etc.

To say the displays were jaw dropping was an understatement. We just loved them all, particularly the perennial borders. I got loads of ideas for my long border, hopefully I can get them to work.

We sat for Dermot O'Neill's talk and his questions and answers, and as usual he was entertaining and informative. Very interesting and unhurried. Would love to have waited for Gerry Daly but didn't want to miss seeing anything.

The food court was excellent, lovely cheese's sausages and loads of samples. Purchases on the day were very reasonable.

We then went for lunch and for the number of people to cater for, it was very well organised. There was a seating organiser on the door, and once he found you seats, you could relax over lunch as long as you wanted. The food was lovely and service was excellent.

I will attach some pictures - I had to add a picture of an Artic which got stuck in the gates of the Park and almost knocked the pier! This is 15.30 in the day when we were in the courtesey bus heading back to the train station. Bear in mind, this is Friday evening, the way in for the coaches and courtesey buses. We were just glad we saw everything early and didn't have to get a later train!

Also, some Garden Designers are bent on selling a outdoor lifestyle not conducive to Ireland. Hammocks and outdoor drapes belong in Malaga, not Monivea

Totally agree with you there Protein, a lot of it can be about selling high end products rather than plants. That outdoor living or outdoor lifestyle make me puke most of the time. Gardening should be mostly about plants not bubble swing seats like you might see in an episode of mtv cribs.

Her Outdoors thanks for letting us see some of your snaps. Lots of lovely plants. I see organicgrowingpains tumbling pots made an appearace in snap 1. Here they are from a while back http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about2288.html_________________'Unemployment is capitalisms way of getting you to plant a garden'.
Orson Scott Card

I was delighted to find that the Irish Postal service actually worked well and thanks to GPIs prompt posting of my tickets on Thursday they actually arrived on Friday! Was delighted to get the tickets, I rarely win anything.

The good points about Bloom were:

Decent parking and handy enough to get to although 5 euros to park is a bit steep.

My kids loved it, lots for them to do and look at

I can't imagine what it would have been like if it had rained but Farmleigh was absolutely glorious in the sun.

The emphasis by some of the show gardens on what you could ACTUALLY achieve in your own garden with not that much expense. Especially growing your own. Some great "wild look" gardens, there's nothing like a stone wall and a bit of Cornflower blue in my book.

The OPW walled Kitchen garden. Just wow. I wish my rainbow chard was 2 feet high. Some ruddy good sorrel and lemon balm in there as well. Everything in here was great and a credit to the gardeners there. I'll definitely return to see that.

The not so good points were:

The Keelings garden. All I could think of when i saw it was "What a colossal waste of food". I mean I can deal with people being extravagant just for the sake of it and I'm aware that if something is to be considered an art form it doesn't necessarily have to have a function per se, but the Keelings garden really made me sick. Shouldn't good design be beautiful and functional? I swiped 2 bananas off it just so I'd know at least some of it got eaten. Woulda looked a right loony making off with those pineapples

The show gardens in general were OK, I was decidedly underwhelmed I have to say. A few of them looked like most of the planting wouldn't survive past the weekend. (I went on Monday).

What is the bloody story with tree ferns? Eh? Are they necessary in EVERY garden? I mean I like tree ferns but at this stage they're a bit like Coldplay : too much exposure and you start to hate them. They're obviously the de rigeur must have for this seasons "gardenistas".

Some of the nurseries selling there had some pretty ordinary things on sale for extraordinary prices. I had a few quid in my pocket for some interesting herbs if I came across them...or even a decent rosemary but the selection was very poor. Maybe because I was there on the last day? the only thing I ended up buying was some lettuce seeds from The Organic Centre stand.

Ok enough ranting. It was a good day out, even after all my cynicism. The fact that up to 3 kids (under 16) could go free with any adult ticket was a definite plus and I would definitely consider going back next year if this was still in place.

Sorry GPI I think I started another thread with my photos and impressions of the day. I would agree with comments about Keelings garden. Though as I say in my comment I got good value ( three plants for €5). Many thanks again for the tickets

Thanks so much for the free tickets GPI! We went for the day on sunday and its just as well I don't have a garden, and thankfully our allotment is just about full at this stage, so no room for any more plants or I would have spent a rediculous amount of money. We thoroughly enjoyed the day, The walled garden was fantastic and gave us a good idea of what our veg in the allotment should look like, and got a good idea of spacings etc. The show gardens were beautifull. I'll post pictures up soon. Thanks again.

Hi GPI, I am a bit late thanking you for the tickets to Bloom but this is the first opportunity I have had as I have been away since Friday evening enjoying the sunshine at the coast.I went with my sister on Friday, got the train up and the courtesy bus to the event. We arrived about 2pm and stayed until after 5 pm.The timing meant we did not sit around for any of the discussions which we would have liked but we took in everything else.We decided if we were going again we would travel up the night before and spend all day, there was so much to see.Thanks again for the tickets I did not realise how much the entry fee was until we got there!_________________Always learning!
http://www.organicgrowingpains.blogspot.com

First off, glad to see that there were aspects of Bloom 2009 you all liked.

Protein wrote:

The highlight for me was a complimentary "creche" service where you can leave your purchases and pick them up on your way out

Plant minders, always a good thing especially if like me you tend to buy more than you can carry.

Protein wrote:

Also, some Garden Designers are bent on selling a outdoor lifestyle not conducive to Ireland. Hammocks and outdoor drapes belong in Malaga, not Monivea

After the glorious weather of the last week there will be many garden designers that will argue this with you Protein.
But give it a week or two and in the middle of a down-pour, then you will be speaking perfect sense.

Her Outdoors wrote:

To say the displays were jaw dropping was an understatement. We just loved them all, particularly the perennial borders. I got loads of ideas for my long border, hopefully I can get them to work.

That's what I was hoping, that some of the ticket winners would come away all stoked up with ideas to try on their own plots. It worked.

Was the image of the veg in perspex above from the Keelings garden that paddy mac fisto mentioned in his post I wonder?

paddy mac fisto wrote:

Love this image paddy.
I have the exact same type of milk can in my back yard which I use to collect rainwater for tea making. Better than the chlorine laced hard water we get through the mains pipes.

paddy mac fisto wrote:

What is the bloody story with tree ferns? Eh? Are they necessary in EVERY garden? I mean I like tree ferns but at this stage they're a bit like Coldplay : too much exposure and you start to hate them. They're obviously the de rigeur must have for this seasons "gardenistas".

I love tree ferns myself, but I see where you are coming from.
A lot of garden creators see them as the antibiotic to cure a pretty standard or boring design.
Plonk in a tree fern or two........ problem solved.
Tree ferns and clipped box, the CGI of the garden design world.

Yeah those perspex pyramids were in the Keelings garden. I wonder, in all that heat, how they maintained the colour and vitality of the fruit? I hope against hope that they didn't simply empty them out at the end of the day and refill in the morning with fresh produce... No one would be THAT extravagant surely.

I did come away from the show with ideas for my own garden and allotment though. I especially like the chestnut paling that some of the gardens had, very simple and effective. It'd be a cheap enough fencing solution for my allotment, plus it'd look a damn sight better than the debris netting I was going to buy from the builders providers._________________www.paddymacfisto.blogspot.com

Thanks again for the tickets, We had a great time, went early on monday morning.

My OH took the memory card out of the camera to look at our camping pictures and never put it back. We only realised this half way through bloom after supposidly snapping this thatn and the other! Doh!

Was great to see the kitchen garden, and look at the spacings of various veg. Though i did find on some of the show gardens the veg (cabbage especially) would never have room to grow, but they did look pretty.

We came away with some ideas, I started to paint my raised veg beds on tuesday after seeing some lovely coloured painted ones at the show. And realised we were being a bit boring withours.

And also, not sure which garden ( and of course i dont have a picture to check) There was a garden with a lovely cream/white covered wooden trellis type thing at the back, it made a lovely feature (if any one has a picture i would appreciate seeing it to jog the memory.)

One last thing which i would love to try is the compost bin, that was made to a seat, with coloured perspex sides. The lady said that she dug a hole to put the compost material in, and because the sides were perspex it generated a lot of heat.
It looked really well too.

This is a terrible admission to make but I didn't see the Michelle Obama replica garden anywhere on the day. I thought I looked in every nook and cranny but I never came upon it. Can anybody tell me where it was or better still has someone a pic of it._________________Is ar scáth a chéile a mairimid

Ho breezyacre, I have photos but cannot put them up! We nearly missed it as well it was in the angle between the Bloom restaurant and the Bord Bia stand. It was noticable by the American flag flying but looked very cramped and crowded with veg. I wonder why Mary McAleese garden was not featured? Our President was years ahead of her with a veg plot and hens in the Arus!_________________Always learning!
http://www.organicgrowingpains.blogspot.com

I am going to try to upload some photos of Bloom (again)
Whooo it works,thanks GPI!
The tumbling pots have gone into production, on this stand they were selling a simple metal trivet which fits into the base of the large pot and half of the rod is welded to it,the second half of the rod then screws into it. The man was selling two for 20e to a lady when we were there.
He also had a very interesting video showing the different uses for it. The photo shows a dried flower arrangement. It could be used with fruit and flowers for a harvest festival or a Christmas theme , lots of ideas!
The veg in canvas bags was just one idea for planting veg in small spaces even if you only have a patio or balcony.
The walled kitchen garden was stunning but i thought it would be completely planted up by this time of year, there were quite a few empty beds.
Mr Middletons stand was the only one devoted entirely to veg which on first sight looks like wax it is so perfect...oh well something to aspire to!
I travelled up with my sister and we sat and admired the spectacle in the glorious sunshine while quaffing the strawberries and champagne and we were entertained by a Barbershop group who were walking around singing.

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